A retail barcode is, in most simple terms, a unique number or name (or any alpha numeric combination) encoded as an image. As such it does not contain any company or product information encoded into it, which means there is no risk of detailed proprietary information or IP being compromised. When the barcode goes into retail stores or warehouses, the product information is attached to the related barcode in the store’s scanning system so that when the barcode is scanned it links the active data base to the associated product information.